The Tattooist of Auschwitz

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a Holocaust love story, based on the story of Auschwitz survivor Lale Sokolov, told to the author Heather Morris. That combination seems a little odd, but it makes for a mostly engrossing read. The romance of Lale and Gita, the main characters, gives them (and us) hope in the horrific environment of the Auschwitz concentration camp, yet this powerful tale is held back by the plain prose.

In 1942, Lale, a Slovakian Jew, was imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau for the crime of being born Jewish. He’s given the number 32407, and set to work on constructing more camp blocks. Through luck Lale becomes the Tätowierer: the person who tattooed the now-iconic numbers on the arms of Auschwitz prisoners.

One day, he tattoos the arm of a girl called Gita. It really was love at first sight; “as he tattooed her number on her left arm, she tattooed her number in his heart.” Lale does everything he can to protect Gita: smuggling food to her and her friends, medicine for her, and getting her a position in the heated administration block. He promises her that “one day we will leave this place and live a happy life together”, marry, and have children. This promise gives them hope, and is a central theme throughout the book in the many dark situations they face. Lale especially is put in some difficult situations, but always miraculously makes it back to see his love once more.

Their relationship stays strong through the camps, giving the reader hope as it makes the book a lot more palatable and significantly less dark compared to other Holocaust tales. Even after the war they face trials, namely actually locating each other in the post-war chaos, but they stay together for the rest of their days. Upon completing this emotional rollercoaster, I discovered that at the back of my book there were photos of the two together: from their 1945 honeymoon, to the 70s and their first child, to the last photo of them together in 2003. It was a lovely romance and one that many readers will enjoy.

Unfortunately, I found that the book falls short in two parts. Firstly, you may notice that my review focuses more on the ‘love story’ rather than the Holocaust. This is a reflection of the book - apart from roll call and the occasional terrible moment, you could almost forget the horror of Lale and Gita’s surroundings. While not every book needs to be horrifically depressing, I thought that this one did seem to gloss over the barbarity of the camps. This isn’t necessarily a reason to not read it, but readers who are a bit older and are looking for a heavier read will not find it in this book. Readers be warned that there also have been issues with historical distortions / inaccuracies, including the aforementioned oversimplified realities of camp life.

The second problem I had was with the writing. Due to the basic vocabulary and short sentences, I often disengaged with the events or characters. In important, emotional scenes, I found that I was bored or skim-reading. The characters didn’t feel well developed; I couldn’t tell you a single character trait of Gita’s. However I did have the YA edition, so maybe the prose was oversimplified.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I wanted to, but I still recommend it as an introductory Holocaust story, filled with romance to make it less dark. The age range is a bit harder; while the writing would disengage older readers, the subject matter can be quite dark and wouldn't be suitable for younger kids! Older readers who are interested should read the official edition, where (hopefully) the prose is more interesting. I think the YA version is ideal for mature younger readers, or around ages 12-15.